The real deal Nineteenth-century ballets are not all alike. But Boston Ballet's Sleeping Beauty is the real McCoy.

Kissing off 2009 I had no New Year's kiss last year. I had fun, friends, a bonfire, and a bellyful of delicious food, but no kiss.

Musical acrobats Having Antonio Sanchez explain the difference between "straight 8's" and "swing 8's" is a bit like having Einstein explain long division — total waste of the dude's time.

Ascending elegies As we made our way up the ramps of the Guggenheim during the second part of Meredith Monk's Ascension Variations , we encountered a man in red curled up on his side on the floor, cradling a Jew's harp against his teeth.

2009: The year in dance You could say there were two tremendous forces that propelled dance into the world of modern culture: the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev and the choreography of Merce Cunningham.

The joy of risk The solo performances of Michael Moschen have many elements to them: dance movement, juggling, theater, pantomime, the balancing and acrobatic skills of a circus artist, the illusion-making craft of a magician.

Airs and graces Somewhere in the middle of Stephen Petronio’s terrific hour-long dance I Drink the Air Before Me last Friday night, the dancers exited and the space went dark.

Conductor karaoke Surrealists who work with movement have to manage a demanding slight-of-hand.

Reality riffs When Jerome Robbins's New York Export: Opus Jazz boogied onto the scene in 1958 then took Europe by storm. Created for Ballets: U.S.A., a company of ballet, modern, and jazz dancers that Robbins had put together for a government-sponsored cultural exchange tour, Opus Jazz was a kind of spinoff from the 1957 hit musical West Side Story , which Robbins directed and choreographed.

Happy returns George Balanchine didn’t go in for productions of the old classic ballets.